CONTENTS. 2 TIM. III. 16, 17.—All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for cor- rection, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of JOHN VII. 17.-If any man will do his will, he shall know of I CORINTHIANS VIII. I-3.-Knowledge puffeth up, but cha- rity edifieth. And if any man think that he knoweth SERMON I. HOLY SCRIPTURE, THE INSTRUMENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Preached at St Mary's Church, 20 Nov. 1859. 2 TIM. III. 16, 17. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. If we acknowledge, as acknowledge we must, that great causes are meant to lead to great effects, and that things have a purpose, there is one nation, the purpose of whose existence and history we can have little difficulty in determining. Few facts are more clear and patent than the special mission of the Jews. Of all the branches of the great human family, C. S. 1 they are marked with an impression the most unmistakeably Divine. To them was entrusted, in spite of all their sins and rebellions, the privilege of teaching to the world the Truth of God. Traitors and idolators as they often were, they still could not help proclaiming proclaiming by their sufferings and punishments when their tongues were silent -that there was one God, who had created man, and had entered into relations with man His creature. Their work did not end, till, after a long preparation of the hearts and minds of men for that great event, the relation between God and man became most close and intimate, when the Son of God revealed Himself as the Son of man, and the Word became Flesh, and dwelt among us. The Jewish tradition then ceased, not by becoming untrue, but by becoming universal. The arms of Rome and the arts of Greece had prepared the soil to receive the seed which had been committed to the chosen people. The Spirit of God, working by ways which we know not, or know imperfectly at the best, took from the casket the treasure which had hitherto been hidden in it, and made the unwilling Jew the preacher of good tidings to the willing Gentile. The sacred race had been entrusted with a dispensation which they obeyed through their rebellion, and fulfilled in the act of renouncing it. God then poured that Spirit upon all flesh which had hitherto been working most powerfully upon a particular nation. The wisdom and power of this world were humbled at the foot of the Cross. By the light of that Cross, in which he had learned to glory, St Paul was allowed in his measure to see whence the Spirit was coming and whither it was going. Unseen itself, he could trace its course in its effects; by its working on his own inspired mind, by the bend and turn of events, and the bowing of the hearts of nations. It was going from the Jews to the Gentiles; from a part to the whole, from a nation to the world. Blessed with this new and precious knowledge, St Paul still held in his hands and retained in his mind that sacred volume, so dear to his youth, and of which he had found the key in his manhood; so |